


Calling of the Bells

by Amari



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, Spirit AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-17
Packaged: 2018-01-25 11:42:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1647425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amari/pseuds/Amari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray could see spirits, and always heard their call.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calling of the Bells

A faint jingle rang through the air. It was light and airy. A wistful sound that carried along with the wind. A gentle sound that Ray woke up to.  It’s a sound he’d woken up to for years.

It’s a sound he’d heard for years.

Giant brass bells that called out to him, day after day.

When he was younger, his mother told him he was hearing things. She told him to ignore the sound. When he started seeing things too, she told him to ignore them as well.

“Those are spirits,” She said, “You are a human, and you don’t want to get dragged into their world. Spirits are dangerous beings.”

At first, it was hard ignoring all the new creatures that faintly came in and out of his vision. He wanted to play with them, make friends with them, but he also couldn’t look at them. His mother told them that if they noticed that he could see him, they’d take him away. Some of the spirits glowed like goddesses, others sang songs like angels.

But there was one sound he was drawn to, and that was the bells. The bells changed tone, from beautiful chimes to that of cheap plastic jiggling, and he never found out why.

He never saw the creature the sound belonged to, like it was always just out of sight.

“Mom, I always hear bells.”

“What have I told you about listening to spirits?”

“I can’t help it. It’s like the bells are in my ears!”

“Honey, you need to ignore it.”

When he turned 13, the noise stopped. He felt lonely at first, but lived with it. But without that sound, that beautiful chiming in the distance, he always felt like something was off. A sound of his soul had drifted off into nothingness. He lived with this slight incompleteness for ten years until he left his home in New York and moved to Austin, Texas to work for a media production company known as Roosterteeth.

He didn’t tell anyone that he could see spirits, and man, some of the spirits in Texas in general were nasty looking. They looked like monsters that shouldn’t exist, some of them warped and looking like they were in constant pain. The sounds they made could be somewhere between screams of horror and scraping metal. They were horrible, and he was terrified of them, but he couldn’t tell anyone. He didn’t want anyone to know of the private nightmare he was living.

But the spirits and how frightful they were reminded him of the calming bells he used to hear. Their sound, their tempo brought with them a safety he couldn’t quite put a finger on. The sound was a barrier, a spell, which made all the horrifying spirits to disappear. Without that sound, the spirits that were more like monsters surrounded him. The ones that touched him affected him the most. He couldn’t react to them as their multi-limbed bodies slowly crept up his arms, leaving trails of slime behind them.  Then the bells would chime, and they’d all but practically poof in clouds of dust, leaving only pure spirits behind.

One night in Austin, a night he should have went straight home, he wandered around the city. He just wanted to take a stroll, see the people and the places, and maybe some friendlier-looking spirits. Ray wasn’t the type to go outside often, but damn if the urge wasn’t strong tonight. So out and about he went, avoiding people and sprits as he needed, casually chatting with other people when he could. It was actually pretty nice until he saw it.

A large, slightly transparent shadow spirit started thundering down the sidewalk. It stood about nine feet tall with its slightly hunched over figure. Arms as thick as columns hung low, fingers the size of Ray Ray’s legs barely dragged above the sidewalk. Bright red glowing eyes opened and closed on all parts of his hulking mass. The damned thing even had a mouth that was breathing out what looked like poison in purple clouds.

Ray froze as he saw it, fear paralyzing his legs. He’d never seen a spirit of such a size before, not in a city. The closest thing he’d seen before were land turtle spirits that lived in the woods. Those turtles were like mountains, but harmless. This thing was a danger. All other spirits fled at the sight of it.

Ray, luckily was on the opposite sidewalk from the giant spirit, and for a moment, he figured he’d be fine.Then one eyeball opened on its forearm. It stared directly at Ray. Then three eyeballs opened vertically to look at Ray.

Every muscle in Ray’s body twitched, telling him to run, but he didn’t move. He couldn’t move, and he wanted to scream and yell for help when the entire being turned to him.

“Hey boy.” They spirit addressed Ray, purple smoke billowing from its invisible lungs.

Ray swallowed.

“Hey boy.” The spirit said again, this time in a more excited tone. “You can see me, can’t ya?”

Ray couldn’t say anything he wasn’t supposed to, so he couldn’t.

The spirit laughed, its entire body shaking as the laughter ripped through it. “Perfect.” It said before jumping in the air effortlessly.  Ray’s chin followed the beast in the air and back down again as he shook the earth near Ray’s feet. It was standing in front of him now, licking its large, slimy, pink tongue on its mouth.

“You can see me.” It repeated again, leaning its face down into Ray’s and breathing deeply. The smog pouring from its throat burned Ray’s eyes but he couldn’t look away. “That means I can eat you.”

Ray stood helplessly as the Spirit stretched its mouth open over him. Time slowed to a near halt. His brain had given up trying to send his muscles signals to run. He was just going to die, and he wasn’t going to fight it. How could he? There was a nine foot spirit that looked like it came straight out of a Studio Ghibli horror film going to eat him. No human could even try putting up a fight against something like it. For a moment, Ray honestly hated himself for being so weak. For seeing spirits all his life, for seeing them for so long he never considered he’d be too scared to move when one finally saw him.

Then again, his mother said they’d take him away, not eat him.

Closing his eyes, Ray drove his brain back to the time when the spirits were beautiful creatures he ignored. They lit up his day, sometimes literally, but he always enjoyed the fact that there was more to this world than the average person could see.

 The mystical lights and sounds…..

Sounds….

Like the bells.

Ray was hearing the bells.

The jingle that he had nearly forgotten rang in his ears once again. Ray tore his eyes open in time to see a blue flame rip through the Sprit. The entire being yelled out in a scream that convinced Ray his eardrums were going to burst. The monster became engulfed in the blue flames and in moments it was nothing more than ash.

Standing behind the wreckage, through the intense heat, Ray saw another spirit. A silver fox, whose fur held a lavender sheen in the moonlight, stood strongly. Red markings that contrasted with its silver fur decorated its face.  It had six tails, each tip lit by a tiny blue flame. Around its neck was a red and white rope that held two giant ceremony bells. They chimed as invisible forces moved them.

The very same chime Ray had woken up to for years. The very same chime that called out to him, that allowed him to see the spirits.

The owner of that sound was more beautiful than the sound itself.

Ray’s body moved on its own reaching out to the weary-looking fox.  “It’s… you.” He whispered.

The fox stared at Ray for a moment, its eyes full of serenity, but its body ready to spring away. Ray took an uncontrolled step forward. The flames of the shadow spirit were gone, pushed away by a gust of wind, all but forgotten by Ray. He was entranced by the bells, by the beautiful spirit before him.

“You’re… beautiful.” Ray said in wonderment.

The fox’s right ear twitched and it turned to bounce away. The bells echoing louder from its movement. Ray didn’t know why, but he ran. He chased after the fox as it jumped in a zig-zag down the sidewalk. Like most spirits, it was graceful, but to Ray, every one of its jumps seemed like a dance.

“Wait! Stop! Please!” Ray called as he followed it. He was falling behind rapidly and he knew that he would lose the fox if it didn’t stop.

The fox suddenly turned a corner, and Ray followed, hoping the awful cliché of it disappearing wouldn’t happen. When he reached the corner himself, he turned, only to smack face-first into a body. Fumbling backwards, he lost his balance and landed on his rear.

“Shit!” He grumbled.  Groaning, Ray looked up into the face of the person he smashed into.

Holy hell, this guy looked like he had walked straight out of a magazine. Perfectly messed up hair, a strong chin with just the right amount of stubble, a narrow nose, thin lips, and perfectly dark eyes. On top of that, the way that he was looking at Ray gave him an otherworldly aurora. The stranger was looking at Ray, but through his entire being. Ray’s brain stuttered while looking at the Adonis-in-casual-clothing until something caught his eye. The man that was wearing bell earrings.

Then Ray remembered the fox.

The man reached forward, a slivered smile on his face. His hand was an anchor for Ray as he gripped tight and pulled himself up. “Uh, thanks.” Ray mumbled, “And sorry for running into you.”

The man with the bells shook his head, saying nothing but Ray understood that he took no offense. He reached out again, his hand slowly crossing the space between them, fingers relaxed as he rested his hand on Ray’s head. Pushing softly, he rubbed Ray’s head, messing up his already messy hair.

This is the part where Ray should have pulled away, considered the guy a creep, and erased him from his memories completely, but his hand was so warm, so comforting he couldn’t move. Not to mention the guy’s smile was that of pure bliss, as if he’d been waiting for a long time to reach out to Ray. A dream was finally realized in one moment, and Ray couldn’t take that away, even if it was a potentially dangerous stranger.

When he finally let go, the bells on his ears jingled with his movement. Ray almost laughed because it was the exact same sound the Fox had been making for years.

“Sorry.” The stranger said, looking far from being apologetic.

Ray snorted, “I guess it’s fair from me nearly tackling you in an alley.”

“Right.” The man nodded, “Your hair is soft, by the way.”

“Thanks. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a fox to find.” Ray smiled and leaned around the man, looking farther into the alley. It was dark and probably didn’t go much farther. Being a spirit, the fox probably jumped through the wall and into another world.

“Why?”

Ray returned to the confused gentleman, “Why what?”

“Why are you looking for a fox?” he asked timidly.

“Well, you see,” Ray said casually, waving his hand around, “The world is a weird place with weird things, and I have to thank it.”

The man went along with Ray’s words easily, “Thank it?”

“Yeah. You see, I’m pretty sure that thing has been protecting me for a long time, and it just saved my ass again. I have to thank it.”

The man was silent for a long while, thoughts processing in his brain. Ray only stood, waiting for the words to come to his lips. Their conversation had come to a dance of careful words. The man opened and closed his mouth a few times, swallowing the words before he knew they were the right ones.

Eventually, the man closed his eyes. He looked serene.

“I suppose,” He began, “that I could try and continue this façade of being a stranger on the street, but you’ve figured out something, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, the bells gave it away.” Ray admitted, “You are the fox that’s always been there, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I am.” The fox opened his eyes, and his entire body began to glow. Red markings crawled back onto his cheek bones and above his eyes. They were sharp and precise decorating his face in an almost warrior-like fashion. His ears began to grow out into a Zelda-esque points, imitating his fox ears.  Six furry tails appeared behind him moving up and down like rolling waves, each tipped in a blue flame.

“Don’t worry, only you can actually see my spirit features.” He added.

“Where did you go for ten years?” Ray suddenly blurted out, “Why did you call out for me for so long and then leave me? Is it because I’m a human and wouldn’t understand? Did you think I stopped listening to you because my mom said so?” Ray’s voice cracked as the loneliness he’d been holding in for years burst forth. “Well I didn’t! Your bells, your chime, your song, I always listened! I always wondered where it came from and why it was there, even though I knew spirits were dangerous, but your sound… your sound made me feel safe because it was always there. And then one day I woke up and the sound wasn’t there. I was shaken up, but I couldn’t show it. I couldn’t show it, I couldn’t tell anyone about it! Where did you go?”

Sadness pooled in his eyes, but he didn’t look away, he stared Ray in the face. “I apologize. I am sorry for leaving your side and if you give me the chance, I can tell you why. I just need time, and preferably we didn’t talk in an alley.”

Ray didn’t question it. He didn’t want to, he just wanted the story, a reason, so he grabbed the sleeve of the fox and all but dragged him to his apartment. The walk back was silent, no words shared between them, but Ray never let go. Ray could feel the smile on the back of his neck. He threw the Spirit into the apartment like he was in a rush and locked the door behind him.

“So people can’t get in, I promise that’s why I’m locking the door.” He quickly explained. 

The fox laughed in a surprisingly uncharming way. His laughs were silent, hard intakes of breath that made his whole body shake. One weird noise after another as he laughed until he let out a sigh of recovery.

“You alright?” Ray asked, making his way to the living room and plopping on his tan couch.

The spirit wiped away a tear, “Yeah, I’m good. You just haven’t changed all that much. Caring too much about the strangest details, but forgetting the biggest ones.”

“Like what?” Ray huffed.

“You realize you’ve dragged a Spirit into your home. A spirit, the very same that your mother’s told you not to talk to, not to listen to, to pretend that don’t exist. A spirit much like the one that just tried EATING you, and you’re worried about how I’d feel to you ‘locking me in’? I think that’s a pretty big thing you’ve overlooked here.” He strolled into the middle of the living room and sat on the floor.

Ray scoffed, “So, I’m just supposed to assume that the very same Spirit that saved my ass earlier is also going to devour my soul?”

The fox shrugged, “Hey, you never know. I just might.” He licked his lips for added emphasis.

“Just—Just stop. You want to tell me that story now? Basically why you ever watched over me in the first place, and why you left?”

The fox drew a breath and began to tell his story.

Many years ago, spirits and humans used to interact like they were one in the same. Spirits would protect and guide the weak humans, and did so until the dynamic shifted. Humans lost their connection to spirits, and the spirits could no longer communicate with the humans. From then on, Humans just became playtoys for cynical spirits, even a food source for dark spirits.

But every once in a while, a human is born that has the ability to connect to spirits. These humans are special, very special. They have a power of their own, that spirits themselves don’t understand.

Twenty-three years ago, the fox spirit felt a shift of energy. Not knowing if it was a threat or something else entirely, he sought out the source and found a newborn baby. Ray.

He didn’t understand what it was, but there was a pure power in the boy. A power that called out to the fox. Something he felt the need to protect and he took it upon himself to do so. Just as Ray said his bells called him, Ray’s light beckoned the fox.

For years, he protected the boy, but only because he didn’t want that power to fade. He wanted to protect this power and see what it would grow into. What he didn’t count on, was growing attached to the boy himself. The boy not only had an inner light, but a heart of gold as well. Despite what his mother had told him about the spirits, he still held a respect for them. He’d go out of his way to make sure he didn’t just phase through a spirit, even if it meant he looked weird to the humans around him. The human cared.

But in this day and age, it’s not good for Spirits to grow attached to humans. It makes them a target to angrier Spirits, those that hate humans. It disrupts the fragile balance between worlds by crossing them.

So, knowing his attachment to the boy, the fox left. He left hoping that he’d never see the boy again, but also hoping that the boy would grow up and keep his light.

“But, somehow, it’s like you found me instead, and goddammit, I still have to protect you.” The fox finished, faking irritation.

Ray pondered the story for a moment, “So, why’d you stop and turn into this?”

“Because I couldn’t very well just make a human appear on the streets, at least coming from an alleyway would make a little more sense. I also wasn’t expecting you to chase after me either. I was caught in a panic of _Oh no you saw me_ and _Oh shit why is he chasing me?_ ” The fox answered honestly.

“I uh—“ Ray stammered, “I couldn’t help myself.”

“Yeah, it’s alright.”

Silence fell between them.

Ray perked his head up, “Uh, so, will you be leaving again?”

The fox stood from his spot and walked over to Ray. He placed his hand on Ray’s head and ruffled the hair. “You can say that, but I think I’ll watch over you from the distance again. My bells will call to you, and your light will call to me. I want to keep that light in you alive.”

“Can we talk again?” Ray asked.

“I’m sure that if you speak, I will listen.” The fox reassured him before taking a few steps back, “I will be there for you. I cannot say, however, that we will be able to talk like this. I’m already probably attracting too much attention as it is.”

The fox’s body glowed, and he shed his human skin, reappearing as the full fox form. It was just as beautiful as before.

Ray swallowed, holding back a creeping sadness, “Are you going to go now?”

The Spirit nodded, “Yes. I should leave.”

Ray stood from the couch, “Wait, just one second. You never told me your name.”

“Well Ray, Spirits don’t have names. Why don’t you name me, and make our bond true?”

Ray closed his eyes in thought. The name had to be one that would connect them together. One that would make sense with the commanding of the bells, and the leading of light. The name had to surface from a fog of many, and it would have to be just the right name.

“He that wills or commands,” Ray said, keeping his eyes closed, “Your name shall be Joel. Because you will to protect me, and your bells call to me.”

The fox nodded, “Perfect. My name is now Joel. Thank you.”

“No.” Ray said, “Thank you, Joel. I’ll be seeing you.”

“Yes. I’ll always protect you.” Joel repeated before fading away into nothingness.

Even without Joel’s physical presence, Ray didn’t feel alone, because he felt the spirit already standing watch over him.

“And my mom said the spirits would take me away, how wrong she was.” Ray teased before going to bed.

Ray woke up to the faint sound of bells chiming in the distance. 


End file.
